Cultural Promoter

As a promoter and player of Zimbabwean indigenous music, Keith Goddard was strongly influenced in his musical thinking by African music theory and practice, especially its rhythms and textures and the role that music plays in society. He worked with distinguished ethnomusicologists Paul Berliner, renowned for his book The Soul of Mbira, and Andrew Tracey, whose father, Hugh Tracey, founded the International Library of African Music ILAM in Grahamstown, South Africa. He travelled the world with Zimbabwean musicians and his foundation KUNZWANA Trust hosted the Houses of Stone festival with researchers and musicians from various parts of Africa.

KUNZWANA Trust has been established by Keith Goddard and his fellow trustees Fiona Lloyd, Phillip Marira and Debbie Metcalfe in 1987 as a non-profit-making organisation which fosters the practice and study of indigenous musics in Zimbabwe through the promotion of the work of performing artists and instrument makers for fair reward and the development of music research projects for educational purposes. The aim of KUNZWANA was to encourage the highest artists standards in Zimbabwean music and to provide artists and instrument makers with fair reward for the work they do.

The Kunzwana Trust has organised numerous festivals, tours and concerts in various parts of Zimbabwe:May 1988: A festival of traditional music at the Murehwa Culture House, 90 km outside Harare where musicians from surrounding areas met for a day of musical celebrationSeptember 1990 : An exhibition of Southern African Musical Instruments in conjunction with the Ethnomusicology Programme of the Zimbabwe College of Music and hosted by the French Cultural ServicesOctober 1993: hosting of the Austrian Duo Attwenger and organising their Zimbabwe tour sharing the stage with Oliver Mutukudzi & The Black Spirits and with Black Umfolosi. This was the first collaboration with Austria-Zimbabwe Friendship AssociationAugust/September 1994: The Houses of Stone Festival and Festival Trail which brought together musicians and Ethnomusicologists from many different parts of Africa and elsewhere in the world.

December 1995: hosting and organising of a music Safari of a group of artists and musicians from Linz (Georg Ritter, Peter Androsch, Rudi Pfann, Gotthard Wagner etal.), in due course first contact made with Tonga music in Siachilaba

February/March 1996: hosting of Wiener Tschuschenkapelle from Vienna on tour in Zimbabwe and Mocambique in collaboration with Ambuya Beauler Dyoko and Ghorwane

July 2002: hosting of Otto Lechner & Windhund from Vienna on tour to visit the Tonga area and attend Harare Jazz festival

When the Wiener Tschuschenkapelle went on tour in Zimbabwe in 1996 they visited Simon Mashoko, the grand master musician on the mbira, at his rural home in Nyika near Masvingo. This encounter was the start of a series of projects and collaborations with Werner Puntigam, Klaus Hollinetz and Michael Pilz.